Lady Gaga has revealed she was hospitalised due to mental health issues and severe psychological problems during the filming of her upcoming feature film, House of Gucci.
The film follows Patrizia Reggiani and Maurizio Gucci through their tumultuous relationship, marriage, business, divorce, and eventual murder. After Gucci left Reggiani for a younger woman, Reggiani - dubbed ‘the black widow’ by Italian police - ordered a hit on Gucci, hiring a gunman to shoot and kill him.
Reggiani and Gucci's story is a sad and uncomfortable one to follow for any person. But portraying a killer as an actress with a huge platform, high stakes involved, the pressure of a potential Oscar, and criticism from the murderer herself, would be enough to drive anyone over the edge.
Lady Gaga recently spoke in British Vogue and at the House of Gucci premiere about her extremely intense method acting commitment, revealing that she lived as Patrizia Reggiani - whom she portrays in the film - for an entire year.
'It is three years since I started working on it, and I will be fully honest and transparent: I lived as her for a year and a half. And I spoke with an accent for nine months of that,’ Gaga said. ‘Off-camera, too. I never broke. I stayed with her,' she shared. So, it's unsurprising Gaga needed a little help from professionals during her time on the set.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter,Gaga has now recalled how the choice eventually caused her to vomit from the extreme anxiety she experienced while filming.
'I get nervous that people will assume that I'm sensationalising a certain type of acting.’
To embody Reggiani, she used sense memory techniques to connect her own trauma to that of the Italian socialite. But the method caused director Ridley Scott to intervene as he believed the idea was dangerous and she shouldn’t follow through with it.
'(There's) a scene where I knock a lit candle across the room, and I remember I gave Salma (Hayek) a heart attack that day,' she recalled, revealing that the incident caused her to be sent to the hospital. 'I was falling apart as (Patrizia) fell apart. When I say that I didn't break character, some of it was not by choice.
'Ridley said, "I don't want you traumatising yourself." And I said, "I already have. I've already been through this anyway. I might as well give it to you." And he said, "Well, leave it here and don't do this to yourself anymore."'
Despite the warnings, the A Star is Born star resumed this acting technique, pushing her extreme symptoms to one side. Gaga even revealed that while filming House of Gucci, her wake up time was 3 am where she started her day and began to begin to get into character. Gaga shared that this caused ‘anxiety, fatigue, trauma, exhaustion, and commitment.’ But also, she says, it caused ‘love.’
Gaga also said that she still feels ‘so insecure’ talking about the detrimental effect this had on her. ‘I get nervous that people will assume that I'm sensationalising a certain type of acting.’ Since the star has been hospitalised, we know romanticisation is far from her intention.
READ MORE: Lady Gaga’s Acting Process For House Of Gucci Is Super Intense